Diaclone was launched in Japan by Takara in 1980, the same year I was born. And that’s where my childhood association with Diaclone ends, as growing up in the UK it was primarily Transformers that had my attention. Trickles of Diaclone-based figures did reach the UK but in London I saw neither sight nor sound of them. In addition to Japan and Asia, countries like France, Italy, Holland, Germany and some Scandinavian territories had Diaclone toys on shelves. Like many current Diaclone fans outside of Asia, my access to it came via Transformers and the exploration of their origins (and ancestral variants) within Diaclone and other such pre-Transformers toy lines. With the 30th anniversary of the line passing seemingly without a sound, it was a wonderful and unexpected surprise to see TakaraTomy announce a reboot of Diaclone in 2015, and the first figure from that line has just seen release. This is the magnificent DA-01 Dia-Battles V2 and its co-release, the more limited DA-01EX Dia-Battles V2 Prototype.